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From PC Mag.com 26/02/11:Bloggable neologisms like "tbh" and "sexting" have apparently cyberbullied their way into an Oxford dictionary.The Oxford Dictionary Online - the modern language counterpart to the traditional Oxford English Dictionary - has added Web 2.0 jargon such as "bloggable," "cyberbullying," "sexting," "tbh" ("to be honest"),"clickjacking," "scareware," "trackpad," and "fnarr fnarr" to its collection. But wait- fnarr fnarr? We had to look this one up. According to its OD entry, fnarr fnarr (pronounced fna fna) is British texting slang for sniggering, usually at a sexual innuendo.Don’t worry, PC Mag - I hadn’t heard of this one either, and I’m British. (I think). Oxford provides the example: "That's some package! (Said the bishop to the actress, fnarr fnarr)." In America, we'd probably say something like, "That's some package! (That…

I’ve heard that a lot of commercial law firms who who offer employment law advice to businesses are increasingly branching out into offering a full package of services which used to be the domain of the dreaded ‘Human Resources’ department. You know the kind of stuff: materials for appraisals, psychometric tests, staff-engagement/happiness questionnaires and so forth. Personally, I think these services are a bit of a farce, irrespective of who provides them and commercial firms should know better than to sully their reputation by getting mixed up with them.Anyhow, there was an absolute gem of a letter in the Digg Weekly Digest this week – a photo of a letter from some company’s human resources department who offered helpful suggestions in putting their constructive criticism across more, well, constructively!

Dear Employees,It has been brought to **********’s attention that some individuals have been using foul language during the course of a normal conversation with their co-work…

Yep, they come around quickly, don’t they? Law Actually is 4 today!I created and started the blog, Law Actually, on 19th February 2007, and an awful lot has happened in the blawgosphere during these four years. We’ve all seen a lot of blawggers come and go, whilst some of the respected stalwarts have stuck it out and continue to go from strength to strength. I guess Law Actually is somewhere in the middle.Sometimes, now more than ever, I struggle a bit to find the time to keep updating Law Actually as often as I’d like, but that struggle is worth suffering in my opinion. Blogging is still something I enjoy and have always found strangely therapeutic for whatever reason.I’ve tried to ‘do my bit’ in reinforcing the camaraderie in the UK blawgsphere over the last 12 months. I’ve continued to flag-up newbie bloggers as I stumble across them (check out the previous post for the latest) and my blawgin’ lovin’ campaign, remote interviews and co-hosted 2010 Blawggies (with Andro and Law Min…

I’ve tried to wind down the amount of negative posts in which I bemoan the current dearth of new blogs and general state of the blawgosphere. Still, I might as well say it: 2011 has gotten off to a slow and worrying start for the UK blawgosphere, with activity levels falling to their lowest for perhaps 4 years or so. And this time, I haven’t been the only one to comment on it.Anyhow, right on cue, I’ve discovered an excellent new bunch of UK law student blogs, which are collectively helping to take up some of the slack. Here’s my take on them.How to be a bad law studentCreated right at the end of 2010, HTBABLS is penned by a 19 year old self-proclaimed day-dreamer, who’s in her first year studying law at uni and freely admits to being ‘very bad’. In quite what sense remains to be seen, but I’ve seen enough of this blog already to realise we’ve a good-un on our hands. More to the point, the author’s got a whole lot of love to give and affectionately finishes each post with a couple of…

CollegeHumor‘s amusing line-up of Valentine’s Day cards might not be up to the standard of these which I posted a couple of years ago, but some are still worth a look.My favourite cover:And the loving message inside:Classy. If only Funky Pigeon had this design! I don’t know if anyone else in the blawgosphere is a customer of Funky Pigeon but I’ve placed a couple of orders recently and when I chose to opt for a more natural, informal font for the greeting inside, the top line always arrives printed in the default font. That’s certainly not how it appears on screen when you’re designing it.That said, their selection of cards seems much better than Moonpig’s, so you can’t have everything I guess. Maybe I should just customise the cover and hand-write the greeting inside anyway?Found here.

Lest any of members the blawgosphere should get a bit carried away with Valentine’s Day tomorrow, the following should serve as a grave warning.From FoxNews 21/01/11: A New Zealand woman was temporarily partially paralyzed by a hickey on her neck from her amorous partner, AFP reported Friday.The 44-year-old woman went to the emergency department of Middlemore Hospital in Auckland last year after experiencing loss of movement in her left arm while watching television, doctors reported in the New Zealand Medical Journal.Doctors concluded the woman had suffered a mild stroke but were puzzled about its cause until they found a small vertical bruise on her neck near a major artery, a hickey, she received a few days earlier."Because it was a love bite there would be a lot of suction," one of the doctors who treated her, Teddy Wu, told the Christchurch Press.Oh yeah? That’s what they all say!

"Because of the physical trauma it had made a bit of bruising inside the vessel. T…

From Roll on Friday 04/02/11:Kaplan Law School has had its proposed aptitude test for the LPC squashed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). That's despite hopes that an entry test might raise the quality of the LPC intake and stop less able students throwing away good money on a course that would not ultimately lead anywhere.Amen to that. Sadly even [the] mildest of barriers to entry was too draconian for the SRA, which has refused to validate the move. So, rather predictably and depressingly, just about anyone with a degree and a pot of gold will still be able to start the LPC this year. I realise that entry tests have been mooted for the LPC for years – and even more so since the massive supply/demand quotients of students / training contracts fell so far out of kilter. But this just seems like a really, really good idea. Yes, it might mean more stress, it might be gruelling, it might slap some people down and prevent them from immediately progressing to the next stag…

I’m a bit late with this one, but it’s too good to pass up.From: News.com.au 17/01/11:A couple floating down Melbourne's Yarra River on inflatable dolls have been rescued after getting into trouble.Police say the 19-year-old couple had just passed Pound Bend Tunnel at Warrandyte North when the water became turbulent and the woman lost control of her grip on the doll about 4.30pm (AEDT) on Sunday.

The woman grabbed hold of a tree that was floating in the river.

The man stayed with her and they yelled for help, police say. A passer-by contacted triple zero and police and SES went to the scene.

A kayaker took life jackets to the pair and the SES attended with a boat and rescued the pair.

They were checked by ambulance officers but did not require medical attention.

Police say the fate of the dolls is unknown.Who knows what happened to them; maybe they’ll wash up off the coast of France? ;-)I notice the story didn’t venture whether the dolls were mal…

Michael is a practising lawyer and accomplished cynic from the UK. He’s been blogging since his student days and can’t quite bring himself to hang up his blogging gloves just yet (they’re fingerless gloves, obviously).
He loves fussing over trivialities, seeking comfort from repetitive activities, idly reminiscing and moaning about things.